Monday, October 16, 2006

German Audrey Hepburn stamp fetches $65,000

A South African Website,News24.com, reports that a German stamp honouring Hollywood legend Audrey Hepburn was sold for $66,500 at an auction in Germany on Friday.

According to the site, "The 1.10-mark stamp was withdrawn before release in 2001 after Hepburn's family objected because she was shown smoking a cigarette in a scene from the film Breakfast at Tiffany's."

"Most of the 14 million stamps printed were destroyed. But five sheets of 10, which had been set aside for the German post office archive, went missing. However, three individual stamps reached the public domain, among them the one sold to a German telephone bidder on Friday."

Another of the stamps fetched 135,000 euros at an auction last year.

In 2003, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp honouring the actress. It has a drawing of her based on a publicity photo from the movie Sabrina.